


Passing the Torch

by ZVArmy



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: F/M, Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-02 06:09:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14538369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZVArmy/pseuds/ZVArmy
Summary: If Clementine Rollins can with the Royal Rumble, will the WWE Universe get to see a dream mother - daughter match at the grandest stage of them all?





	1. Chapter 1

It felt like every muscle in Clementine Rollins' body was aching. Utterly exhausted, she breathed heavily, grateful for every previous second of rest. She was lying flat on her back in the middle of the ring, almost an hour into the Royal Rumble match. Having entered the match at number one, she was now in the final three, having just bundled surprise entrant Becky Lynch over the top rope before collapsing to the canvas.

Several minutes earlier, Clementine had been on the receiving end of an awkwardly delivered powerslam, taking most of the impact on her left shoulder. There had been no dislocation, so there was unlikely to be lasting damage, but right now moving her arm was very painful.

"We're down to three!" The Miz exclaimed on commentary. "And Clementine Rollins is still in there. She entered at number one, almost an hour ago."

"I don't know how Clementine is doing this," Renee said in awe. "Almost everyone who has entered the match has gone after her, yet she's managed to somehow survive. She's already set a record for the longest time spent in a women's royal rumble match. The previous record actually belonged to her mother, Lucy Rollins, who won four years ago from the number five position."

Always booked as the underdog fighting against the odds, Clementine was incredibly popular with the fans. The Royal Rumble marked a year since her first main roster match, and she was yet to win her first Women's Championship, having been screwed out of it several times in various ways when a victory had seemed to be within her grasp. It was for that reason that virtually everyone in the arena was desperate to see a Clementine victory, hoping that it would lead to her getting her hands on some gold at long last.

The other two women left in the match were Sonya Deville and Elena D'Agostino, both heel characters, as if the fans needed any more reason to side with Rollins. As Sonya walked over to Clementine and started to haul her to her feet, boos rained down on the ring as people feared elimination of their favourite.

Once Clementine was standing, looking barely conscious, Sonya hit her with a savage kick to the side of her head – her finishing move. The crowd groaned and booed, realising that was probably the end.

"Clementine gave it everything she had," Graves said as Sonya hauled her back up again, mouthing off at the fans about how she was going to throw Clem over the top rope. "No one could say it wasn't a valiant effort, but it's going to be over…"

He had been talking as Sonya ran towards the ropes, dragging Clementine by the head, but Clem took her by surprise and broke out of Sonya's grasp, reversing the hold and throwing her over the top rope instead, to a tremendous roar of approval from the fans.

"No it's not going to be over!" Renee yelled. "Not yet, anyway! Clementine eliminates Sonya! We're down to two women, and they're both down."

It was true. Clementine had fallen back to the mat, lying on her front, while Elena was slumped with her back propped up against the bottom turnbuckle in a corner on the opposite side of the ring.

A cameraman managed to get a zoomed in shot of Clementine's exhausted face as her eyes focused on Elena.

The shot then changed to show Elena, taking a deep breath as she locked eyes with her opponent.

"It comes down to this," Renee said, hyping it up as the noise from the crowd started to build. They were on their feet in anticipation of the final confrontation. "Clementine Rollins and Elena D'Agostino, who have fought so many times over the past year. They're about to go at it one more time, and the winner will be going to Wrestlemania, having the choice to compete for the either the Raw Women's Championship or the Smackdown Women's Championship."

"I've got to make Elena the favourite," Miz said, backing the heel as usual. "She's much fresher than Clementine, having entered at number twenty five."

"Don't count Clem out," Graves said. "The Diamond in the Rough guaranteed a victory here tonight. She's fought all the way through the match. I don't think she's done all that to fail now."

Slowly, Clementine and Elena got to their feet, meeting each other in the middle of the ring. If it had been two other competitors, they might have exchanged some words before getting the final battle underway. But there was too much water under the bridge between Rollins and D'Agostino. They started swinging hard right hands at each other immediately, with the crowd roaring them on.

"And here we go!" Renee called. "Look at them go! Clementine at Elena going at it one more time! One of them will go to Wrestlemania, the other will fall at the final hurdle!"

The fresher Elena got the upper hand in the exchange of punches, forcing Clementine back into a corner, then knocking her down with one final, stiff shot to the face.

Elena backed off, waiting in the middle of the ring to mount her next offense.

"Elena poised and ready to strike," Miz shouted as Clem used the ropes to pull herself up. She staggered out of the corner, walking right into a hard kick to the stomach. She was then setup in position for a suplex, or, more accurately, Elena's sitout suplex slam finishing move.

"Here is comes!" Graves exclaimed.

Elena hoisted Clem in the air, into a vertical position, but Clem somehow managed to launch herself out of the predicament, landing on her feet behind her rival in an incredible feat of athleticism similar to those displayed by her father for so many years.

Surprised, Elena turned around, right into Clementine's finishing move, a copy of DDP's Diamond Cutter which had the same name as her character's nickname. The crowd exploded as she connected with the move for only the second time in the match.

"The Diamond in the Rough!" Renee screamed. "Clementine hit it!"

Finding a rush of adrenaline from somewhere, Rollins leapt to her feet, dragged Elena up and sent her flying over the top rope.

"She did it!" Graves shouted as the roof almost came off the arena.

"Clementine wins! Clementine wins!" Renee yelled.

"I can't believe it!" Miz added.

Fans could be seen literally jumping around, going out of their minds in wild celebration, while Clem collapsed the mat again, not really needing to sell her exhaustion. Lying there with her eyes closed, she listened to the phenomenal noise in the arena. No stranger to big crowd reactions, even she had never experienced anything like it before. The bell rang, and her music began to play as JoJo announced her as the winner.

Renee said, "Clementine Rollins was the number one entrant, and somehow, some way, she was able to outlast the entire field and win. I've never seen anything like it in my life, and look at these fans! Everyone's standing and applauding, as well they should."

"You said it exactly right, Renee," Graves said. "As well they should. Clem has been a star for a long time in the eyes of the fans, but tonight? She made the big time. Clementine Rollins is going to Wrestlemania!"

"But who will she choose to face?" Miz asked. "She has the right to face either the Smackdown Women's Champion, Andromeda, or will she go for the match I know I'd love to see."

"Oh my, I hadn't even thought about that," Renee cut in. "Lucy Rollins successfully defended the Raw Women's Championship earlier tonight. Could we really see a mother versus daughter match at the grandest stage of them all?"

"That'll be Clementine's decision," Graves said. "Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow night on Raw."

"I've just got confirmation of the match time," Renee said. "Clementine went an hour and one minute tonight. Over and hour in a Royal Rumble match. That's an out of this world performance."

In the ring, Clem was getting to her feet, feeling on top of the world despite how fatigued she was, and how much her shoulder hurt. Tears stung her eyes, taking her by surprise. She hadn't been brought to tears many times in her career, but the tremendous honour she had been given on this night was almost enough to get it done.

The crowd roared her back to her feet. It was an incredibly humbling moment, seeing how much her victory meant to these people who she would never even get to meet. It was one of the things she considered the craziest about the privileged position her job put her in: hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people around the world wanted success for her, even though they didn't know her personally.

Wanting to avoid the terrible stereotype of pointing to the Wrestlemania sign hanging high above the back of the ring, Clem instead stepped through the ropes and climbed to the middle turnbuckle in the corner to deliver her traditional pose, arms raising in the air, hands forming a diamond shape. Looking out at the fans, she saw most of them returning the gesture in kind.

Pyro began to go off on the stage to further celebrate the monumental victory. For about twenty seconds, explosions rocked the arena, with Clem standing there posing, trying to commit every single second of what she was experiencing to memory. Even the best wrestlers didn't get many moments like this in a career, and she knew her first big win would always be extra special when she looked back on it.

When the pyro display ended, Clem knew that she couldn't waste too much time getting to the back. The cameras were to follow her the whole way up the ramp, and with the men's rumble still to come, there wasn't a lot of time to kill in the process.

Clem climbed down from the turnbuckles and walked down the ring steps. The fans with ringside seats were all shouting and stretching their hands out towards her, hoping to be acknowledged. For her, the ability to do small things to acknowledge people for their support was one of the best parts of playing a face character.

She began walking along the side of the ring, touching as many hands as she could without lingering.

"Clem! Clem!" a teenage girl yelled desperately at the top of her voice.

Clementine glanced at her and noticed that she was wearing the latest Clementine Rollins shirts, and was holding out one of the white and dark blue baseball caps with a C on the front - by far Clem's best selling merchandise item. The girl shouted something else that Clem couldn't hear over the music and cheering, brandishing the cap towards her.

"What?" Clem asked her, stopping and taking a step closer.

"Take my cap!" the girl pleaded.

Clem smiled. Everyone who knew anything about her was aware that she wore one of those caps literally all the time, whenever it was socially permissible and physically possible to do so. Wearing a cap wasn't just a signature for her character, it had been something that had made her feel comfortable her entire life. For that reason, this fan was willing to hand over one that she had paid good money for.

"Are you sure?" Clem asked.

"Take it, please!" the girl insisted, making perfectly clear that it would mean the world to her.

"Alright, thanks!" Clem grinned, taking the cap and putting it. She heard another cheer go up; the fans watching on the big screen and loving the gesture. The girl who had given her the cap was in tears by the time she walked away, thinking that there would never be a time when she got used to meaning that much to people.

Clem got a move on, walking up the entrance ramp before turning and giving the diamond pose one more time, with a cameraman standing in front of her to capture it up close.

With that, Clem's music cut and the lights in the arena went off in preparation for the video package prior to the men's rumble. Her part in the show done, she turned and walked through the curtain.

Applause and a standing ovation from everyone in Gorilla greeted her as she came through the curtain. Clem felt humbled yet again. Hunter and Stephanie, the chairman and CEO of WWE, were both there to greet her.

"Congratulations, Clem, you were amazing out there," Hunter said, stepping forward first and offering a hug.

"Thank you," Clem said, accepting his embrace.

Hunter spoke his next words quietly, meaning them only for her. "I know we made you wait a while for a big win, but it was worth it."

"It sure was," she agreed as he released her and stepped back. "That reaction... I don't even know what to say."

Stephanie came forward and offered another hug and more congratulations. With that, it was time for Clem to get out of Gorilla. The first two male entrants for the rumble match were already there, ready to make their entrances in a few moments, and the bosses had to busy themselves with producing the show.

Walking out into the hallway, Clem found the two people she had really been wanting to see waiting for her. Seth and Lucy Rollins, her parents who had adopted her at the age of ten, were both standing there with tears in their eyes. Seth, now only a part time performer at best, wasn't in the rumble, and Lucy was already changed out of her ring attire after her earlier successful title defence.

"Clem!" Seth said, just beating Lucy to the first hug. "Oh my God. I'm so proud of you, sweet pea. You were on another level out there. Congratulations. You deserve this more than I could ever say. I love you."

"Thanks, dad, I love you too," she croaked, holding him as tight as she could despite the fact that it hurt her shoulder to do so.

Seth let her go after a moment, so that Lucy could step forward for her hug.

"Mom, that was something else," Clem gasped as Lucy kissed her on the cheek, then squeezed her every bit as tightly as her dad had done.

"You stole the show, sweetheart," Lucy said, her voice breaking. "We're the proudest parents in the world. I always knew this moment would come. I always knew. I love you so much."

Clem finally burst into tears, which immediately set Lucy and Seth off as he well. He wrapped his arms around them both, making it a group hug. Clem's cap was knocked off in the process, but no one seemed to notice.

Another thing none of them noticed was a WWE photographer capturing the moment, getting pictures that would soon be setting the company's social media on fire.

A minute later, the tearful family moment had passed and the group hug broke up.

"I need to get some ice on my shoulder," Clem said. "I took a nasty landing on it. Nothing serious, but it's painful."

"Alright, let's go and get you checked out," Lucy said. She was glad that in the emotion of her victory, Clem hadn't yet asked any questions about what her Wrestlemania match was going to be. That was going to be a discussion that brought tears for a very different reason.


	2. Chapter 2

With Seth down in the hotel's bar, enjoying a catch up with Roman and Dean, who had both been in the men's Royal Rumble match, Lucy had come to Clementine's room. It was time for them to have a conversation that Lucy had known they were going to need to have for some time, but hadn't been looking forward to at all.

"Hey, come in," Clementine said after opening the door.

"How's the shoulder, sweet pea?" Lucy asked with concern.

After the rumble, WWE's doctor had performed an examination on the injury, finding no cause for serious concern. Given the amount of pain Clem had described, he had however recommended a couple of weeks with no in-ring action to be on the safe side. He had also applied some ice, telling Clem to do so once an hour until arriving for Raw the next day, when he would examine her again.

Clem closed the door and followed her mother into the room. "It's less painful than it was during the match. It's just a bit banged up. I'm not concerned about it." She had made her way over to a table on the far side of the room, on which sat an ice bucket with a bottle of white wine in it. Two glasses stood beside the ice bucket. "I ordered some wine, if you'd like some?"

The room had a couch big enough to sit three people. Lucy sat down at one end of it. "Yes, please," she said as she made herself comfortable. "Have you been icing your shoulder?"

"Yeah. I just took it off a few minutes ago."

"Okay, good," Lucy smiled.

Opening the wine bottle, Clementine wished that her aunt, Alexa Ambrose could have joined them. She had originally been booked for a cameo in the rumble match, but had cancelled the previous day after her and Dean's young son Blake had fallen ill. "It's a shame Aunt Alexa couldn't make it," she commented. "How is the little goofball? Have you heard anything?"

Goofball was Clementine's nickname for Blake. It always made Lucy smile whenever she heard it. "Lexi sent me a text earlier. She said he has a fever. She hopes he'll be getting better in the next few days."

"Poor little guy," Clem said compassionately. "I really wish Alexa could have been here, though. We could have made a night of it."

"The guys certainly are," Lucy said. "Your dad's down in the bar with Dean and Roman now. I'll probably end up having to carry him up here by the end of the night."

Clementine giggled. "Probably." She walked over with the two glasses of wine, handed one to her mom, then sat down at the other end of the couch. "Mmm, that's nice," she said after taking her first sip.

"Very," Lucy agreed.

"It still doesn't seem real that Hunter booked me to win the rumble from number one," Clem said, shaking her head. "Winning it at all was more than I dared to hope for, but from number one? I couldn't believe it when he told me."

"And you still looked great at the end," Lucy said proudly. "You're a much better athlete than I ever was. I'd probably have died if I'd have gone an hour in a match."

Clem grinned. "So would I, in that body armour and everything you wear in the ring. I don't know how you manage it."

"I got used to it. It would feel so weird now to wear anything else to wrestle."

They enjoyed sipping their wine for a moment in the most relaxed of silences until Clementine said, "Bayley called me earlier. She made me cry, saying such lovely things to me."

Now retired from the ring, Bayley was the senior women's trainer down at WWE's Performance Center in Florida. After her initial training at DDP's wrestling school, Clem had been signed by WWE and assigned to the Performance Center, where Bayley had taken her under her wing. The two women were now close friends, and Clem was Bayley's first top star of her training career.

"What did she say?" Lucy asked.

"I don't want to repeat it all, but she said watching the end of that match and my celebration was one of the proudest moments of her life, and she was crying in front her TV. That started both of us crying on the phone."

"Oh, Clem," Lucy said, her voice thick with emotion as she took her daughter's hand.

Clem used her other hand to remove her baseball cap and wipe her face, using it as a method to fight off another wave of tears. After putting the cap back on, she moved the conversation forward. "You know what Hunter didn't tell me tonight? Who I'm going to be wrestling at Wrestlemania."

Lucy recognised it as what it was - an attempt to avoid any more tears being shed. She also knew it wasn't going to go like that. This was the moment she had been dreading. Her heart felt heavy with the news she had to break.

"Mom?" Clem asked in a worried tone.

Realising that something in her expression must have given her away, Lucy took a deep breath and began. "It's going to be you and me, Clem. We're going to wrestle each other at Wrestlemania."

"That should be amazing news," Clem said, confused. "But you're upset. Why?" Then the penny dropped, and her face fell. "No..."

"It's going to be my last match," Lucy said with a heavy heart.

"No. No," Clem said, shaking her head in denial. "No, you can't retire."

Lucy was tearing up already. "It's time, sweet pea."

"No," Clem pleaded, quickly putting her wine glass on the floor and moving down the couch and cuddling up to her mom. Her cap fell off in the process, ending up on the floor.

It was more than enough to start the tears flowing for Lucy, who quickly put her glass aside and held Clem in her moment of need, finding the moment reminiscent of the earliest days after adopting her, when Seth and Lucy had been literally all Clem had in the world. "I had a good run," she managed to choke out.

"It doesn't have to be over," Clem said before bursting into tears and burying her face in Lucy's shoulder.

"Don't cry, baby," Lucy whispered, gently stroking her hair. "This was always going to come. Your mom can't carry on forever. I don't want to be one of those people who goes on too long and makes a joke of themselves and everything they achieved. I want to go out at the top, and what better way to do it than by realising the one dream I had left in this business, wrestling you?"

The words made Clementine cry even harder. She was really bawling her eyes out.

Tears streamed down Lucy's cheeks. "I know, sweet pea. I know. I've been dreading this moment ever since I told Steph and Hunter I was ready to retire."

"What am I supposed to do without you?" Clem wailed helplessly. "You won't be in the locker room. You won't be on the road. I'll miss you."

"Me too, baby," Lucy sobbed. It was all she could manage to say.

They sat there and cried, holding each other for dear life until no more tears would come.

"Oh, God," Clem gasped eventually, breaking out of the embrace and getting up.

"Where are you going?" Lucy asked, wiping her eyes.

"To wash my face."

Lucy considered that her daughter sounded almost dazed. As unpleasant as it was to see Clem take the news so badly, it wasn't a huge surprise. Due to losing both of her birth parents at such a young age, Clem had always been clingy to both Seth and Lucy. For the past year, since Clem had been on the main roster, mother and daughter had travelled everywhere together, and loved it. Now it was coming to an end.

In the bathroom, Clem splashed some cold water on her face, looking at herself in the mirror. She looked as heartbroken as she felt. But she knew she had to do better than that. Her mom was upset, too. She was the one whose career was coming to an end, and she had chosen Clem as the person to have her last match against, and Clem felt certain she would get the win, too. As she had done for the past almost thirteen years, Lucy had put her first in this. There was no better mom in the world.

Tears had started trickled down Clem's cheeks again, so she splashed more water on her face.

"Clem?" Lucy's voice came from outside the bathroom door.

"She's always there for you, be there for her," Clem whispered to the reflection in the mirror. She knew that calling time on her career had to have been one of the hardest of her mom's life. She was the one who needed support.

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked, stepping forward as soon as the bathroom door opened.

"Are  _you_  okay?" Clem asked with emphasis, putting her own heartbreak aside as best she could.

Lucy spread her arms for a hug, which Clem quickly accepted. "Yeah, I'm okay. I needed that cry, but I'm okay. I've known for a while that the only thing left for me to do in WWE was wrestle you. I wanted it to be my last match, so I pitched it to Steph and Hunter and they were excited to go along with it. That's why they put the belt on me one more time. If I'm going to go out, it's going to be on my back, putting my Clem over as best I can."

"Don't. You'll make me cry again," Clem mumbled, squeezing her tight. After a couple of deep breaths, she was able to go on. "So it's decided I'm going to beat you? Part of me doesn't want to beat you in your last match. You deserve better than that."

Lucy waited for Clem to pull back a little, then kissed her on the forehead. "It's not right to go out on a win, Clem, you know that. My time is over, it's your turn at the top. I broke pretty much every record in women's wrestling. You're going to break them again. Your dad and I couldn't be prouder of the wrestler you've become, or the woman you've become."

"It's only because of you guys," Clem said humbly. "And thank you so much for putting me first, like you always do. You're such an amazing mom to me."

"Yeah, well, your dad would have killed me if I beat you," Lucy said, trying to make a joke out of it so as not to get upset once more.

"Speaking of dad, how long has he known about this?"

"A while," Lucy admitted. "But don't blame him. I made him promise not to say anything, so that I could tell you myself at the right time."

"I don't know what to say, or what to think," Clem muttered. "I suppose I should have seen this coming, but it really blindsided me."

"Some more wine will help," Lucy said, stepping away from the hug and walking across the room to fix the drinks.

A minute later, she was handing Clementine's glass to her. As she did so, she proposed a toast. "Let's drink to taking the Rollins name forward."

"To taking the Rollins name forward," Clem said seriously, clinking glasses. "I won't let you guys down."

"We know that, sweet pea," Lucy said proudly.


	3. Chapter 3

Backstage before Raw, Logan McMahon approached Clementine shortly after she left the makeup area. She had just put her cap back on when he stepped in front of her.

"Clem, can we talk?" he asked.

Clementine stopped and looked at him for a second, considering her answer. For the past year, she had been in and on again, off again relationship with Shane McMahon's oldest son. Although he didn't get along with his father, Logan looked just like him, and possessed all of the McMahon family confidence, forthrightness, and sometimes arrogance.

After their latest falling out a couple of weeks earlier, Seth had encouraged Clem to call it quits for good this time, saying that he'd had enough of seeing her upset.

In her own inimitable style, Lucy had added, "If I wasn't such good friends with Stephanie, I'd strangle that little shit."

While her parents were entitled to their opinions and to offer advice, the problem Clem had with listening to them was that she loved him. She loved Logan, and she couldn't face the idea of them breaking up with him for good. Even so, that didn't stop her feeling mad at him.

"A text message, Logan? Really?" she asked, sounding as annoyed as she felt. "I win the Royal Rumble, and all I get from you is a text message?"

"If you remember, my text message asked what you were doing and your reply said you were with your mom. I wasn't about to come to your room to try and make up with you with Lucy there. She probably wants my liver on a stick."

"Actually, the last thing she said about you was that she wanted to strangle you."

"There you go. That's why I only sent a text message. I want us to sit down and talk, Clem. I want to apologise for the argument we had, it was my fault. But last night wasn't the time to do it."

Clem considered that for a moment before deciding to cut him a break. "Alright. You can take me to dinner after the show. And you'd better make it a good one, mister."

"It will be," Logan promised. "Now how about a kiss from my girl?"

"Dinner and apology first, then maybe you'll get a kiss from your girl."

"You drive a hard bargain, Clem," he said with a sigh.

"Just be glad I am bargaining. If I took my mom and dad's advice I wouldn't be."

With that, Clementine walked away. She had a show to get ready for.

* * *

In something of a rarity, the main event slot on Raw had been given to a speaking segment. Lucy Rollins had come to the ring, talking about her successful title defence the previous night at the Royal Rumble.

"And now that I've retained this," she said after talking about the match for a couple of minutes, holding the Raw Women's Championship belt up in a leather gloved hand, "I have guaranteed myself a match at Wrestlemania."

The raucous crowd cheered that statement. Their cheers turned into an eruption when Clementine Rollins' music hit. They were losing their minds not just for her arrival, but for what it implied.

"Woah! Listen to this ovation!" Renee Young exclaimed on commentary as Lucy turned to face the stage and her daughter walked out into the wall of noise.

"This is one of the loudest reactions I've ever heard!" Graves shouted. He probably wasn't overreacting.

"But why is Clementine coming out here?" Miz asked as she walked down the entrance ramp, taking off her cap and throwing off to the right into the crowd as she always did.

"That's a question I don't have an answer to," Renee said. "But I can tell you that last night, Clementine Rollins entered the Royal Rumble at number one, went over an hour in the match and won. In my opinion, it was one of the most incredible feats in the history of this business."

"That's certainly arguable," Graves said. "With that amazing victory, Clem won herself the right to face either the Smackdown Women's Champion, Andromeda, or the Raw Women's Champion, who happens to be Lucy Rollins. No disrespect to Andromeda, but I know which of those matches I want to see."

"I'm sure I don't need to point out that we've never had a mother – daughter match in WWE. If that's the way Clem chooses to go, we would be guaranteed to witness history, and what a match it would be," Renee said.

"I have goosebumps thinking about it," Graves said.

Clementine was standing on the middle turnbuckle closest to the timekeeper's positon, as she always did as part of every entrance, giving her trademark diamond pose. Standing in the middle of the ring, Lucy applauded her for her outstanding win the previous night.

Often, Clem would stand and give her promos from the position on the turnbuckle, but not on this occasion. After accepting a microphone, she climbed to the top rope then dropped into the ring, and her music faded out.

A wall of noise filled the arena as mother and daughter stood in the same ring, as potential enemies for the first time. A "Yes!" chant started, and quickly spread around the crowd like wildfire. The fans were making their opinion on the prospective match perfectly clear.

Clem nodded her appreciation of her mom's victory the previous night. "Congratulations, mom," she said with a broad smile. "That was an incredible victory last night. As you just said, you've secured yourself a match at Wrestlemania. Guess what? So have I!"

Smiling, Lucy said something off microphone, clearly passing on congratulations of her own.

"Winning the Royal Rumble was a dream come true for me," Clem said proudly. "Last night, after I got back to the hotel and it all started to sink in, I found myself considering the huge decision that my victory presented me with. You see, I have to choose whether I want to challenge Andromeda, the Smackdown Women's Champion, at Wrestlemania, or do I want to challenge the Raw Women's Champion, Lucy Rollins?"

The fans roared their approval of the second idea, and a "Lucy Rollins!" chant started as the fans tried to answer on Clementine's behalf. Lucy looked around at them, taking in their reaction.

"In the end," Clem said once the noise started to die down, "there was no decision to make. I always dreamed of being able to share a ring with my mom, and I've done that. We've teamed up several times. But what we've never done, is wrestle each other."

Lucy raised her eyebrows as a loud cheer went up.

"Is Clementine saying what I think she's saying?" Miz asked.

"I figured what better place to make a dream come true than Wrestlemania," Clem went on. "So, my decision is that I will challenge for the Raw Women's Championship, against Lucy Rollins!"

"Yes! Yes!" Renee yelled over an eruption from the crowd.

"What a match that's going to be!" Graves joined in. "Eighty thousand people in the Superdome in New Orleans to see Lucy and Clementine Rollins face off! I can't wait!"

The crowd quickly got another "Lucy Rollins!" chant going. Both women looked around at the fans, lapping up the atmosphere. After thirty seconds or so of the Lucy chant, some fans started adding Clem's name to it, so that it became "Lucy Rollins! Clem-en-tine!" Soon that version of the chant was thundering around the arena.

"Listen to this place!" Miz said in awe.

"I'd like to know what Lucy's opinion of Clem's decision is," Renee said.

Eventually, the chanting began to die down. Slowly, Lucy nodded her acceptance of the fact that she was going to have to wrestle her daughter with her championship on the line. Stepping forward, she offered a hug.

Without hesitation, Clementine accepted the embrace, drawing another cheer from the fans.

"That's lovely to see," Renee said. "Mother and daughter are going to square off at Wrestlemania, but that's not going to change the love they have for each other."

After the hug, Lucy took Clementine's hand and raised it in celebration, looking proud of everything her daughter had achieved.

But then Lucy's face changed. In the space of a second, her smile was replaced by a look of malice. Before anyone had time to react, least of all Clem, Lucy spun around and almost literally took her head off with the stiffest of clotheslines.

"Oh wait!" Renee cried out in horror as Clem was sent crashing to the mat on the back of her shoulders and neck, folding up like an accordion. As ever, selling was her strong point.

"What the hell was that?" Graves demanded as the fans erupted into boos.

Clementine rolled over onto her back, but Lucy was on her in a flash, straddling her and blazing away with powerful right hands.

"You want to take what's mine?" she raged in between punches.

"You want to steal my spotlight?"

More punches went in.

"After everything I've done for you?"

The punching continued, boos raining down.

"Can you make out what Lucy's screaming?" Renee asked.

"No," Miz said. "But I can tell you one thing, it looks like Clementine didn't make the decision that Lucy wanted."

"That's her own daughter," Graves said in disgust as Clem was sent flying through the ropes by Lucy. "How could a mother assault her own daughter like this?"

Beaten and shocked, Clem tried to crawl away from Lucy, but the bigger woman was relentless. She picked Clem up and ragdolled her into the ringside barricade twice, with the fans raging in response to the heinous actions.

"Is this what you want, you little bitch?" Lucy yelled at Clem's crumpled up body lying on the floor.

"Someone needs to get some help out here!" Renee shouted. "Clementine's being destroyed by Lucy here!"

Lucy ragged Clem to her feet again, only to savagely whip her face first into the ring steps. With a tremendous crash, the steps went flying.

"You going to do something about it?" Lucy shouted angrily at the fans closest to her, who were all booing and shouting abuse.

Lucy's directed her attention to her daughter once more, who had crawled across the floor and was trying to get up, using the ringside to help her.

"Lookout, Clem!" Graves shouted as Lucy began charging in.

There was no finesse in the way Lucy smashed into Clementine. It was more of a football tackle than a wrestling move. Finesse or not, it was effective. Clem crashed through the barrier as if she had been run down by a truck.

"Be careful what you wish for, Clem," Miz said. "You wanted to fight your mom, she's fighting you."

"Clem wanted to wrestle her mother," Renee spat at him. "She didn't ask for this. She didn't deserve this."

"Lucy's coming over here now. Get out of here, guys," Graves said, vacating the ringside commentary table. Renee and Miz followed his example, and all three of them headed for the back. Their part in the show was over, but Lucy certainly wasn't finished.

After removing the protective cover and the monitors from the table, she walked back over to the wrecked section of the ringside barricade and picked up Clementine. She carried her daughter over to the commentary table and dumped her on top of it.

If there had been any commentators on air, they would have been demanding to know what Lucy was doing. With the fans renewing the intensity of their booing, she climbed up on the commentary table.

The boos changed to howls of shock as Lucy picked up Clementine and got her in position, lying across her right shoulder. It was the setup for the Thorne in the Side – Lucy's sitout piledriver finishing move. The prospect of Clem taking it on top of a commentary table terrified her fans.

Stretching her arms out in the familiar T pose, Lucy roared like a wild animal, or maybe a woman possessed by the devil. With that, she delivered the move, the table imploding with the impact as more horrified screams came from the crowd.

Clementine had ended up lying on her front among the wreckage of the commentary table.

Finally done with her assault, Lucy stood up and glared down at the destroyed woman before her. "You want to fight me?" she raged, audible over the booing. "That's what happens! You ain't ever taking my title from me!"

Turning her back, Lucy walked away, ignoring the medical personnel who came running around the ring to tend to Clementine.

As the graphic to signal the end of the show appeared in the corner of the screen, the medics were shown arriving at the remains of Clementine.

"Clem? Clem?" one of them asked urgently. "Clem, can you hear me?"

There was no response. Clementine lay there lifeless as the show went off air.


	4. Chapter 4

Sore and banged up after the segment on Raw, Clementine was glad to quickly put away her first glass of wine of the night. She hoped that the alcohol would take the edge off the aches and pains brought on not only by the Raw beat down but also by working for over an hour in the Royal Rumble the night before.

Across the table, Logan McMahon made a start on his first beer. "How's the shoulder?" he asked.

"Pretty sore," Clem replied, understating it. If she had been honest, after what had happened on Raw she would rather have gone back to her hotel room to relax than go out for the meal with him. But she should have thought about that earlier in the night when she had told him to take her out. It wouldn't have been fair to do that and then cancel on him.

Taking a serious ass kicking from her mother, even though it was obviously all part of the show, had left her feeling emotionally drained as well as physically battered and bruised. Anyone who had ever worked with Lucy Thorne/Rollins could have testified to the fact that she worked stiff, and Clem now knew it herself first hand. There had been no going easy because it was her daughter she was working with, that was for sure.

The most painful spot for Clem had been when Lucy had run full speed into her, sending her crashing through the barrier. It was just typical that she had fallen in such a way that most of the impact had been taken on her already bruised shoulder. After the Rumble, WWE's doctor had recommend two weeks of rest to make sure no complications developed from the injury, but that hadn't been possible with Lucy needing to turn heel on her.

"Lucy didn't hold back, did she?" Logan asked. "She was really wrecking you out there."

"Mom doesn't know anything other than working stiff," Clem said with a small smile. "It was only the spot through the barricade that hurt. Typically, I took it on my shoulder. I had to go back to the doctor again when I got backstage. Mom was upset, bless her. Working this program is going to be seriously tough for both of us."

Logan sipped from his beer. "What did the doctor say?"

"He wasn't happy that they had me out there doing those spots, but I'm sure it's not the first time his advice has been ignored. At least I only aggravated the bruising, there's still no lasting damage. But he told me he's going to recommend in the strongest terms that I rest until Elimination Chamber now, so I guess that's what'll have to happen. They'll probably put in the storyline that I'm home recovering from the attack or something."

They turned their attention to their menus. They both announced that they liked the look of the seafood platters, so when their server returned to the table, Logan ordered a big one, supposedly enough to feed four people.

"It says that serves four people," Clem said with a giggle after the server left them to it.

"I'm sure we'll manage to get through most of it," Logan grinned. He picked up the wine bottle and refilled her glass for her.

Clementine thanked him, feeling happy that things had felt genuinely warm between them since he had picked her up at her hotel. It felt like the earlier stages of their relationship, before things had started to take a negative turn. Thinking that, however, made her remember the reason they were having this dinner. She lifted her cap and ran a hand through her hair – a habit that she didn't know she had when she was nervous about something.

Seeing her do that also focussed Logan's mind on the reason they were there. "So, uh, I know I owe you an apology, Clem. I shouldn't have gone off at you the way I did a couple of weeks ago. You didn't deserve it at all. I'd had a few drinks and I was pissed off, but that's no excuse for taking out my frustrations on you. I'm sorry, babe."

Clem considered that for a moment. He had come across as genuinely and sincerely sorry. If this had been the first time something had gone wrong between them she would have accepted the apology and they could have moved on without saying anything more about it. But this wasn't the first time he had upset her, and the last time had been particularly unpleasant.

After not being used on Raw for the third consecutive week, Logan had gotten drunk and had then gone off at her about how unfair it was that she was pushed as one of the top stars of the company and was over like crazy with the fans, while he had struggled to even get a televised match lately. Jealously and negativity like that, Clem could do without, and she had to tell him as much.

"I need to be upfront with you," she said with a sigh. "Apologising is one thing, but frankly, it's not good enough. I don't want your apologies, I want to be with someone who doesn't get jealous of me to start with. There's no place in my life for that kind of negativity, Logan. As you well know, getting to where I am now has been my goal since I was ten years old. I've busted my ass for it. I've never asked my parents to help me out in any way, shape or form as far as making it in WWE is concerned. Everything that's happened in my career has been earned, not handed to me. I'm truly sorry you're not being used much lately. If I was a part of the decision making process I would use you, but I'm not. There's nothing I can do about it, so taking out your anger on me is totally unfair and unjustified."

"I know," he said with a grimace at his own behaviour. "You're totally right in everything you just said. I am really happy for you that you're having such success, and I know you deserve every bit of it. At the same time, though, it's human to be envious of what you have. Not jealous, I know it's wrong to feel that way, but envious. You're out there every week with crowds in the palm of your hand, chanting your name and going wild as soon as your music drops. When you won the rumble the other night, there were people literally jumping around, losing their minds. Everyone who wrestles for a living would love to experience something like that."

"I understand that," Clem conceded. "Trust me, I know how blessed I am to have that kind of support, and to be booked the way I was in the rumble. But what I need from my boyfriend isn't jealousy, or even envy. I need someone who's going to be happy for me that I'm having success in my career. I look at my mom and dad, and I want a relationship like theirs. Do you think my mom has ever been jealous of my dad, or the other way around? No. There's never been anything like that between them because what they have is true love. I see that, and it makes me seriously question what we have. I have to be frank, since we came here to talk about where we stand. The way I see it, our relationship doesn't weigh up to theirs."

Logan bristled at that. "So you're saying I'm not good enough for you, is that it?"

Clem shook her head. "No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying I don't know if we're good for each other anymore. I don't know if this is going to work. I don't even know if it should work. Let's be honest, this isn't the first time we've had a talk like this, is it? I find myself wondering if we're trying to save something that can't, or shouldn't be saved."

He took a swig from his beer before responding. "You've been listening to Lucy, haven't you? She hasn't liked me since day one. She way too protective of you, Clem."

Now it was Clementine's turn to get annoyed. She was a patient and tolerant person in a lot of ways, but one thing she absolutely could not stand was any form of criticism of either Seth or Lucy. And for Logan to say Lucy was too protective of her, knowing full well what the story of her adoption was, was totally out of line on his part.

"Don't sit there and tell me my mom's too protective of me," she snapped. "How dare you? Yes, she is protective of me, and so is my dad, and you damned well know why. And if you must know, both of them have advised me to break things off with you because they've had enough of seeing me upset every time we have an argument."

"So why are we sitting here then?" Logan demanded impatiently.

In that moment, with a heavy heart, Clem realised there was only one answer she could give to that. "Honestly, I don't know," she said quietly.

Looking annoyed as much as dejected, Logan said, "I guess that's it then, is it?"

The fact that he hadn't made any kind of further attempt to fight to save the relationship confirmed the decision for Clem. "Yeah, I guess it is," she said simply, feeling tears stinging her eyes. "But we can still be friends, right?"

With a bitter expression on his face, Logan downed the rest of his beer and banged the empty glass down on the table. "Honestly, I don't think that's going to work for me. If we're breaking up, then we're finished." With that, he stood to leave.

"Logan, wait," Clem tried.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few twenty dollar bills. He tossed them disrespectfully onto the table in front of her and said, "Enjoy the food, I guess."

Watching him walk away, Clem started to cry, and not just at the horrible way he had thrown the money at her. She had genuinely loved Logan, and it hurt a lot to break up with him. Ending any relationship was never easy. Theirs had been a year old, almost to the day. And now it was over. The one thing she tried to console herself with was that, having seen his reaction and how disrespectfully he had tossed the money on the table, she knew it had been the right decision to end it. Her mom, as ever, had been right all along in her belief that Logan didn't respect her the way a partner should.

"Hey, are you okay?" the server asked gently, leaning over the table to look at Clem, who raised her head and met her eyes. The middle aged woman had compassion written all over her face, telling Clem that she had probably seen the way Logan had left the table. The twenty dollar bills were still scattered across the table top.

"I won't be needing the seafood platter," Clem managed to say, her voice slightly ragged.

"That's okay, honey. I doubt they've started on it yet anyway. I'll cancel it for you now."

"Thank you," Clem said as she stood up. "You can put that money in your tips jar or something. I don't want it."

"Are you sure?" the woman asked in great surprise.

"Yeah. Keep it." With that, Clem made a swift exit, only realising as she neared the exit that since Logan had brought her to the restaurant and had now taken off, she was going to have to get herself a ride back to her hotel.

"Great," she sighed to herself. Walking out into the street, she opened the leading urban transport company's app and booked herself a ride. When that was done, she wrote out a text to Lucy, briefly telling her what had happened, and that she was on her way back to the hotel. A reply soon came through.

_Mom: I'm so sorry, sweet pea. Do you need us to come pick you up? Love you loads._

Despite everything, Clem had to smile. She could picture her mom typing out some kind of sentence about knowing all along that Logan was an asshole, but then deleting it. She typed out a reply.

_No, thank you. I'll be back soon. Can I maybe come to your room? I could use a drink and some company._

Moments later, another message came through.

_Mom: Of course. Your dad's on to room service as we speak. Room 355._

Clem typed out a final message.

_Thank you, mom. Love you so much._

She pressed send moments before her ride pulled up in front of her. As she got into the car, she tried to put a brave face on things in front of the driver.

"Hey, how are you?" the cheerful old man in the driver's seat asked.

"Been better, man," Clem said honestly. "But I'll be alright. I always am."


	5. Chapter 5

Clementine Rollins had not been seen on TV since the night after the Royal Rumble, when she had been savagely beaten down by her own mother.

The despicable act had turned Lucy Rollins heel in a huge way. She had gone from being a popular face character to possibly the most hated performer in the company. Watching from home for several weeks as a fan, Clementine had found herself wondering, not for the first time, why her mom had spent most of her career as a face. She had always had the look of a heel. She had always wrestled like a heel. Now that she was a heel, she was killing it.

Over the past few weeks, Lucy had brutally destroyed several opponents, claiming that what she was doing was just a taste of what was going to happen to Clementine at Wrestlemania, if she dared to even show up.

No one among the audience doubted for a minute that Clem would appear at Wrestlemania and try to exact revenge against Lucy, attempting to win the Raw Women's Championship in the process. The real question had been not if Clementine would return, but when.

The answer was at February's Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.

In order to lock in the mother versus daughter title match for Wrestlemania, Raw's general manager Nikki Bella had given Lucy a pass on defending her title at Elimination Chamber, instead booking a number one contender's match to find out who the first challenger after Wrestlemania would be.

No number one contender had been named, however, because Lucy had rushed the ring during the match attacked both women, causing the referee to throw out the match.

With the two competitors left lying in the ring and the fans booing her loudly, Lucy headed up the entrance ramp to the back. Unusually, a camera picked her up as she walked into Gorilla.

"What do you think you're doing?" Hunter Helmsley asked angrily, standing up at his producer's station.

"Whatever the hell I want," Lucy snarled at him disrespectfully. "What are you going to do about it?"

Without waiting for an answer, she continued through Gorilla and out into the hallway.

The shot changed to a camera positioned in front of Lucy. It showed something that she couldn't see, and the crowd watching on the big screen went wild. Clementine had been standing out of sight behind the curtains that hid the backstage areas from the fans. She now stepped forward and came running towards her mother.

"There's Clementine Rollins!" Renee shouted.

Lucy sensed someone approaching and whipped around, not fast enough to protect herself.

"Clementine is here for revenge!" Renee was screaming. "Right hands by Clementine! Look at her go!"

Clem's signature striking combination was multiple right hands followed by a left to catch the recipient unaware, followed by a final, much more powerful right hand. The final right staggered Lucy backwards against a steel roller shutter door.

"Clementine Rollins is assaulting her mother! This is insane!" Graves cried.

During the attack, Lucy had dropped her championship belt. Clementine quickly picked it up off the floor, and as Lucy approached her, looking dazed, Clem smashed her in the head with the belt, knocking her down. The fans were cheering like crazy, loving every second of it.

One of the toughest women on the roster, it took more than a shot with a title belt to keep Lucy down. She started getting up almost straight away.

Having expected exactly that, Clem was ready. She grabbed hold of the back her mother's body armour and slammed her face first into the roller door.

"Lucy Rollins hit that steel door hard, and she's down!" Renee yelled. "This is some payback! Lucy Rollins was the one who started this with her appalling..."

"What's Clementine doing now?" Graves interrupted.

Clem had walked a little further down the hallway and picked up a steel chair. She closed it and raised it above her head before bringing it crashing down onto Lucy's back.

Even that wasn't enough to satisfy her desire for revenge. Clem raised the chair once more and again slammed it onto Lucy's back, seconds before a bunch of referees came running over to break up the one-sided fight.

"You wanted it to go like this!" Clem shouted angrily at Lucy as the referees began dragging her away. "You wanted this! I'm coming for you! I'm coming for you at Wrestlemania! Your ass and that title are mine!"

"Clementine has totally lost it!" Graves exclaimed over the raucous crowd as Lucy was shown lying on her front, looking up in obvious pain at the daughter she had betrayed.

"There you see it written all over the champion's face," Renee said, starting to bring the segment to a close. "Lucy Rollins knows now that she's in for one hell of a fight at Wrestlemania, and the Raw Women's Championship will be on the line!"

* * *

Safe in the knowledge that Raw had gone to commercial, Clem walked back up the hallway towards her mother as the referees made their way back to their locker room. She now knew all too well how hard a time her mom must have had during and after the Raw beat down, especially as Clem had hurt her already bruised shoulder in the process. Beating up someone you loved dearly, even in kayfabe, was a horrible thing to do.

Even with that being the case, another part of Clem had enjoyed the segment. It had been a dream of hers for many, many years to share a ring with Lucy, and here they were, working the program that was going to lead to exactly that. Dreams didn't come true often in life, so she had to put any reluctance aside and enjoy the next month or so of their rivalry.

"Mom, are you okay?" she called out as she approached Lucy, who was being checked on by a stray referee.

Lucy rubbed a gloved hand on the side of her neck, giving her daughter a reassuring smile. "Yeah, Clem, I'm fine. Weirdness of having you kick my arse not withstanding."

It usually made Clem smile when Lucy used distinctly English words like that despite living in America for so many years. But this time there was only concern in Clem's voice. "Did I hurt your neck?"

"I'm fine," Lucy insisted. "Just wrenched it a bit when I hit the door. Nothing that won't be fine by tomorrow."

"You sure?" Clem asked doubtfully.

Lucy put an arm around her shoulders and they started heading for the locker room. "Really, I'm fine. Did you hear that crowd out there? Bloody hell. They're going to lose their minds when you go over at Wrestlemania."

"I'm more bothered about you getting the send-off you deserve," Clem said emotionally. "There's already a lot of speculation about it being your last match. People are figuring it out."

Lucy shook her head slightly. "You know me, Clem. I don't want a fuss making about my retirement. I already declined an offer from Steph to appear on Raw the night after. I want to go out on my own terms, then walk away."

"Are you saying you'll never come back?" Clem asked, sounding devastated by the prospect.

"No, I'm not saying that. I'm sure there will be future cameo appearances I can make. But I don't want to be out there on Raw giving some kind of speech and having people come out and make a fuss of me. You know I'd hate that. I can say my goodbyes and thank yous at the after party."

"What does dad have to say about that?"

"He encouraged me to appear on Raw, but he soon gave up. He knows when my mind won't change," Lucy said with a little grin.

"Well then, there's something my mind won't change about either," Clementine said firmly.

Her tone made Lucy look at her curiously. "What?"

"After I win the match, I'm leaving the ring before you. That will tell people pretty much for sure that you're retiring, and it'll give them the chance to give you the standing ovation you deserve."

Clem had been tearing up as she spoke. She wasn't as surprised as most other people would have been when she saw her mom doing the same. As stoic and stubborn as Lucy was, her impending retirement did upset her.

"I'd like that," Lucy said, her voice slightly heavier than usual as she set about taking her gloves off. "I was going to ask you if we could do that. I want to leave these things and the body armour in the ring. It feels like the right thing to do, at the end."

"Oh, mom," Clem gasped, feeling tears start flowing down her cheeks.

They stopped walking and Lucy hugged her, sniffing loudly to fight off her own tears. "Don't cry, Clem, please."

"Trying not to," Clem mumbled, squeezing her tightly.

They held each other for a minute, finding the comfort they needed.

"Imagine your Uncle Dean seeing us like that," Lucy said as they eventually released each other and continued walking.

"He'd laugh at us for sure," Clem laughed loudly as she wiped her eyes, her heightened emotional state making it seem funnier than it really was. "At least I don't have my cap on, so he couldn't knock it off."

Lucy smiled. "I don't know how I never brained him for doing that. Speaking of braining people," she added, her voice turning cold as she saw Logan McMahon lingering near the women's locker room. Her disposition was not improved when he started walking in their direction.

"Clem, can I talk to you, please?" he asked.

"Piss off, unless you want knocking out," Lucy said in a confrontational manner, stepping in between Logan and her daughter.

"Mom," Clem said gently. She might as well have saved her breath because Lucy was on a roll, getting in Logan's face.

"I heard about how you spoke to Clem the other week, and the way you threw money at her like she was some kind of cheap whore. Who the fuck do you think you are? I ought to knock your teeth out, you little prick."

As a former boxer, there was half a chance she could have done exactly that. Clem wasn't going to let that happen, though. "Mom!" she said again, much louder than before as Logan said something about wanting to apologise. "Let me have a minute to talk to him, please."

Lucy half turned to look at Clem. "You want to talk to him after what he said and did the other week?"

"Yes," Clem said simply, knowing that was the best way to deal with her mom when she was getting hot under the collar.

After considering for a second, Lucy stepped out of the way, glaring at Logan as she did so. She had a parting shot to deliver before walking into the locker room. "If she comes in here upset, I'm going to wait for you in the parking garage and fucking run you over. You got that?"

"Yes, ma'am," Logan said without a hint of sarcasm.

"Ma'am. Wanker," Lucy muttered under her breath as she slammed her way into the locker room.

"I don't think I've been threatened with being run over before," Logan said as an attempt at humour.

"Yeah, well, she probably means it," Clem said. "And for the record, I'm as angry as she is over the way you treated me in that restaurant. I don't have anything I want to say to you after that, so say your piece and get out of here."

"I'm really sorry, Clem. I have no one else to talk to," Logan blurted out before bursting into tears.

Taken completely aback, Clem didn't know what to do for a second. "Jesus, come in here," she said quickly after her mind caught up with what was happening. She opened the door to a nearby empty locker room and shepherded the blubbering Logan into the small room.

"I almost killed myself this afternoon," he said desperately, slumping onto the bench in front of one of the three lockers. "I was going to hang myself in my hotel room."

Sitting down beside him, Clem was shocked to the core. She could tell by the way he said it that he wasn't lying. She had known he wasn't having a great time in his life lately and was unhappy at work, but she hadn't known it was anything like as bad as that. Breaking up with her must have made things worse, of course, but to be on the brink of suicide? She was dumbfounded.

"Hey, I'm here," she said soothingly, wrapping her arms around him. Her kindness only seemed to make him cry harder.

"It's not the first time. I almost did it the night we broke up, too. I don't even know what stopped me that night. I sat there on the floor in my hotel bathroom crying for ages."

"Shit, Logan. I had no idea you were depressed, let alone suicidal," Clem said, struggling to find words to say.

I feel like I can't go on anymore. The only thing that stopped me earlier was convincing myself to talk to you."

"I had no idea you were doing this badly," she said, feeling her heart breaking for him. "I would have been there for you if I knew."

"No you wouldn't," he sobbed. "We broke up. It was all my fault. I screwed it up, like I screw everything up. My family don't want anything to do with me, my career is practically over and I lost you. You were the only person who cared, and I screwed it all up. I have nothing to live for anymore."

"Please try and stop crying," Clem said tenderly. She felt blindsided by the whole thing and had no idea what she should say to help him. What was obvious was that she needed to be there for him, and needed to talk him into getting professional help.

"Sorry," he gasped, trying to get himself under control.

"Logan, I really don't know what to say for the best here," she said carefully. "I want to help you, but I'm not a councillor. You really need to talk to a professional about all of this."

He didn't reply for a minute, struggling to stop crying. Eventually, he was successful. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve, then said, "I don't know about talking to someone. What I need is to go back to where I was a year ago. I was starting to get on better terms with my folks, I was starting out in a relationship with you, and I was wrestling every week. I was perfectly happy. Now all of that is gone. Plus your mom and dad hate me. I've blown it. I've blown everything."

Closing her eyes for a moment, Clem tried to think of the best way to phrase what she had to say. "Logan, I never wanted to break up with you. And my parents didn't always dislike you. Sure, mom especially is protective of me and I get that might have seemed to you like she didn't like you, but what turned them against you was how you treated me. You weren't making me happy, and they knew that. I said to you multiple times that I wasn't happy and I told you why, yet nothing changed. You kept coming at me with the jealousy and stuff, until I couldn't take it anymore. I know you want me to sit here and say we can get back together and everything will be the way it was before, but I can't be put on the spot and say something like that."

"I know," he muttered looking down at the floor. "I know I fucked everything up and treated you badly. I love you, though, Clem. Never doubt that."

Clementine rested her head on his shoulder, her arms still wrapped around him. "I love you, too. Trust me, our breakup has been hurting me a lot. Like I said, I never wanted it to happen in the first place."

Logan turned to look at her for the first time since they had say down. His eyes were red from crying. What struck Clem was how lost he looked. "Tell me there's a chance we can fix it," he begged her.

"There's a chance. You're going to have to get help, though, Logan. I don't feel like I can help you get through the problems you're having right now. You need to talk to a professional, like I said. Getting help isn't something to be ashamed of. It shows strength, not weakness to open up when you're struggling. What I think you need to do first of all is speak to Steph or Hunter. They're your family, not just your bosses. Even if they weren't family, I know they'd do their utmost to help you with something like this. WWE have always been good with that kind of thing."

"I don't know if I can speak to them about this," he said weakly. "It was hard enough to come to you. At least you listened. I really think it was the last chance I had. If you had turned your back on me out there…"

"You did the right thing by talking to me. I'm glad you did. What if I come with you to see Hunter and Steph?" she offered.

Logan took a moment to think that over. "I'll go if you come with me," he decided, bravely, in Clem's opinion. "The main thing I need to know is that we might be able to fix this. It was breaking up with you that really messed me up. I know I was acting jealous and treating you badly. I know I was, and there's no excuse for that, but I think it was depression or something making me act like that. While I was with you, I was just about holding myself together with all the other stuff that was going on, but now? I feel like I can't face another day."

"This his taken me by surprise," Clem admitted after a moment of silence. "I knew you weren't happy with work and stuff, but I didn't know it was this bad." She didn't even realise that she was pretty much repeating herself from a minute before.

He shook his head sadly. "All I think about is how I'm not good enough for anyone. Mom and dad have always thought I was a disappointment. Hunter and Steph obviously don't think I'm good enough to wrestle on TV. Your mom and dad don't think I'm good enough for you. You don't even think I'm good enough for you."

"That's not true and you know it," Clem said, getting a little heated despite the situation. "The issue was you not being good enough for me. I never once even considered anything like that. Your treatment of me was the problem. But let's not argue about that again. What do you say we go find Steph and talk to her?"

Logan rubbed his eyes once more, looking like he was trying to summon some courage.

"I'm here with you, Logan," Clem said, kissing him lightly on the cheek. "You're not going through this alone, alright? I'm with you all the way, so long as you promise me you won't do something stupid."

"Thanks, Clem," he muttered, looking down at the floor.

"I need you to promise me," she told him. "No more thinking about suicide. Look at me and promise me that."

Slowly, Logan looked up at her. "No more thinking about suicide. I promise."

Clem stood up and offered her hand. "Come on then, let's go find Steph."


	6. Chapter 6

"You okay, Clem?" Seth asked.

Clementine was sitting opposite him at a table, backstage before her Wrestlemania Axxess signing. Although she was looking forward to meeting some of her fans, and was only a day away from wrestling her mother at Wrestlemania, she felt like she was in a strange place.

The truth was that no matter how many times she and Logan McMahon had problems with each other, and no matter how big those problems were, she loved the guy. And she knew that he loved her. If there had been any doubt about that in her mind at any point, it was gone now.

Over the past few weeks, Logan had sought professional help for his depression, with the help of WWE. Talking to someone had helped him to turn a corner, but Clementine couldn't help her mind drifting off at least a couple of times a day to the fact that the man she loved had been on the brink of suicide, and she hadn't had a clue. She had been totally blindsided by it when he had found the courage to come to her, and surely that was wrong on her part? Surely she should have known? Surely she shouldn't have thought that he was just being a prick to her? Surely she should have known better than that?

"Clem?" Seth asked again, snapping her out of it.

"Sorry, dad," she said faintly. "I was thinking about Logan. I let him down. He needed help and I wasn't there."

"You were there, sweet pea," Seth said, taking her hand and squeezing it. "He came to you after you broke up with him, yet you listened to him and helped him."

"I should have been there before that," Clem insisted. "What if he hadn't been strong enough to come and try to talk to me? What if he had hung himself instead? I love him, dad, and I can't think about what I would have done if..."

"Hey, hey," Seth said soothingly as tears started trickling down her cheeks. "It didn't happen, Clem. He came you, and he's getting help. His mom and dad reconnected with him, I guess I could say you reconnected with him, and Hunter and Steph told him there's a place for him here when he's well enough to return."

Scrunching her eyes shut to stop the tears, Clem had to admit all of that was true. Logan's cry for help had at least made things happen. Shane had been on the first flight out to see his son after Clem had personally called him with the awful news, telling him in no uncertain terms that she held him partially responsible for Logan being in such a dark place. While that might not have won her any favours with the McMahon family, she didn't really care. Sometimes things just had to be said, whether the person hearing them liked it or not.

"Logan's staying at home with his parents for a while, so hopefully they're fixing things up," Clem said, trying to brighten herself up a bit. Any minute now, she would be going out to her signing. Seeming miserable and having her makeup ruined by crying wasn't the look she was going for.

Right on cue, Lucy walked over to their table, carrying her Raw Women's Championship. She had been across the room, sitting and talking to some of the other wrestlers who were signing during the Saturday afternoon Axxess session that was about to start. Actually, Clem realised, the fans would already be making their way into the exhibition hall by now.

What had shocked a lot of fans was that while Lucy was a Premium VIP signing, requiring fans to pay top dollar for the chance to meet her, Clementine hadn't been given VIP status at all. She was on general admission. As one of the most popular stars in the company, it appeared to be a ridiculous decision on WWE's part. When the list of VIP signings had been released, Clem herself had been surprised. It wasn't that she possessed a giant ego, it was just that she knew it was a fact that she would be high on most fan's list of people they wanted to meet.

So it had proved to be. She remembered checking social media at the time and seeing anger that there was no Clementine VIP. People would have been more than happy to pay extra for the guaranteed chance to meet her, and were not happy about having to hopefully get lucky and meet her on general admission, when so many people would flock to her stage. To make matters worse from their point of view, she had been assigned to the Saturday afternoon session, the busiest of the whole weekend.

Little had anyone known at the time, WWE had a reason behind their decision making.

"You ready, Clem?" Lucy asked cheerfully.

Clem looked up at her and smiled, telling herself that if Logan was there, he would tell her to enjoy meeting the fans, knowing how much she loved doing it. "Yeah, I'm ready," she said positively, getting up.

Seth also rose. "I need a hug from my girls before you go anywhere." They both walked into his arms and he said, "I'm so proud of you both."

"Save that for tomorrow night, mister," Lucy said after giving him a peck on the cheek.

"I'm with mom on this one," Clem grinned, adjusting her cap as they parted.

"You'll regret saying that tomorrow," Seth warned them playfully.

With that, several members of the event's security team approached, ready to walk Lucy and Clementine out to their stages.

"We can't go out together," Lucy pointed out, referring to their bitter kayfabe rivalry.

Clem nodded. "Right. You go out first. You're VIP after all, unlike me." She knew her mom would realise she was only pretending to sound bitter.

"Maybe one day, kid," Lucy taunted, playing along.

They neared the door leading out into the public area of the exhibition hall, so Clem hung back to allow Lucy to go first. "See you soon," she called out.

"You will," Lucy said cheerfully.

To kill the minute she had decided to wait before going out, Clem loaded up a mirror app on her phone and checked that there was no sign that she had briefly cried. Thankfully, there wasn't. In any event, she had her cap on. It was such a part of her life that her fans would probably have been annoyed if she didn't have it on. As was often the case, her short hair was in two little pig tails, sticking out of the bottom of the cap. Her look was completed by a red hoodie and a pair of white shorts.

Before heading through the door, she shot off a quick text message to Logan.

_Thinking of you. Talk later? xx_

For now, they were calling each other friends. Clem had promised him faithfully that come what may, she would always be there for him as a friend, but until he was in a better place it wasn't right to talk about whether they could rekindle their romance. That door wasn't closed, but it wasn't the right time to push it open, either.

"Ready?" one of the security staff assigned to her asked, looking a little confused by the delay.

"Yeah, let's go," Clem replied. She followed him through the door in the main hall. There was a metal barricade to keep the fans away from the door, but of course a few of them were standing behind it, waiting to see who came out. They immediately started calling her name, trying to encourage her to walk over to them. There wasn't time for that, though. The security guys were heading for the stage she was assigned to at a brisk pace.

Admitted before any of the superstars came out to sign, fans had to pick a general admission stage to get in line at and hope for the best with regard to which superstars showed up. Clem had a feeling that those who had happened to pick the one she was going to would be happy with their decision. Looking through the gaps between the stages as she passed a couple of them, she saw people reacting disappointedly that she wasn't coming to them.

"This is us," said the same security guy who had spoken before when they reached her stage.

"Thank you," Clem replied. As she walked around the back of the stage, a loud cheer went up from the fans in line. Acknowledging them with a wave, she saw other fans running over from all directions to join the line. It was humbling to see how eager people were to get to see her. She never allowed herself to forget that there had been a time where she had been a fan, idolising Alexa Bliss. It had been her dream to meet her idol back then. Now it was the dream of other people to meet her. It was her job to make sure the experience lived up to their expectations.

A staff member was assigned to each stage to take photographs for the fans using their cell phone. On Clem's stage, this role was being fulfilled by a friendly looking guy in his thirties with neatly gelled black hair. "Hi, Clementine," he said, offering his hand.

"Good to see you," she smiled, shaking his hand. Looking around, she saw that a table had been arranged for her to sit at, the same as at all the other stages apart from the VIP ones, where the fans at least got a picture with their preferred star standing up. Fully aware that no one liked the behind the table pictures, Clem decided right away that she would stand for her two hour slot. "Can we move the table out of the way?" she asked the guy.

"Yeah, sure, if you like," he said, moving over to shift the chairs to the back of the stage first.

Realising what was going on and that she was going the extra mile for them, the fans began cheering their approval. A chant of "Clem!" was started by a small group of guys, and it caught on with most of the rest of her line. She smiled, thinking that would come in useful for later.

After helping the staff member move the table to the back of the stage, she waited while he brought forward a stand that was about chest height that she could use to sign people's pictures or items. With that done, they were all set.

"Alright, let's go," Clem smiled, looking over to the side of the stage where the line ended.

The first couple of people were guys in their twenties wearing that year's Wrestlemania shirts. She noticed that the first piece of Clementine merch was about ten people back. Further back, there were a lot of Clementine caps. Those were the people who had been dying to meet her in particular.

The volunteer at the head of the line told the first guy he could go up onto the stage. As he walked up the steps, carrying an official programme, Clem held her hand up for a high five and excitedly said, "Hey, man!"

He grinned broadly, slapping her hand enthusiastically. "Hey, Clem! Awesome to meet you!"

"Awesome to meet you, too," she smiled. "Ready for 'Mania tomorrow?"

"Ready for you to kick your mom's ass," he replied with a laugh.

"I'm certainly going to try. Want me to sign that?" she asked, motioning to the programme.

"Please." He had a finger in the programme to keep the page where her full page picture was. Opening it, he put it on the stand for her, and she scrawled her signature over her image with a silver sharpie pen.

"There you go. Let's get a picture," she said with another smile. "What do you say we do the signature pose?" She made half of her trademark diamond pose with her right hand, holding it close to him so that he could join his left hand to hers.

"Hell yeah!" he said enthusiastically, making the pose with her. They both smiled, and the staff member took the picture.

After taking his phone back, the guy said, "Thanks a lot, Clem. You rock."

"Alright, man," she chuckled. "Have a good one."

And so it went on for the next hour and a half of Clem's two hour time slot. She had a great time meeting everyone, and was even given a few gifts and letters by particularly adoring fans. At the instruction of Hunter, she had kept an eye on the opposite stage where her mom was working her way through her VIP line. Noticing that Lucy's line was virtually empty, it was time to get into something that had never been done before at Axxess.

Somewhere in Clementine's line, WWE had planted some supposed fans, who were waiting for a specific signal from her. Taking her cap off to run a hand through her hair, she 'accidentally' dropped it on the floor. That was the signal.

As she went through the process of greeting and signing for the next fan, she heard a few guys starting a "Clementine Rollins!" chant in her line, clapping to complete the tune, just as they were supposed to. The only concern she'd had beforehand was whether others would actually join in, since they were in an Axxess line. She needn't have worried. Within moments, more people were joining in. She encouraged them with a little hand gesture, and most of the rest of the line added their voices and clapping to the chorus.

Now was the key moment. The plants who had originally started the chant replaced their clapping by shouting, "Lucy sucks!"

Listening carefully, Clem heard people laughing at the alteration, before that too began to catch on. The clapping was soon gone altogether and the chant had become, "Clementine Rollins! Lucy sucks!"

It was time for Clem to play her part. After finishing with the fan she had been speaking to, she walked to the edge of the stage and joined in, pointing to herself when they chanted her name, then across at Lucy when the insult was directed at her.

Seeing Clem joining in only made the fans chant more enthusiastically, and the "Lucy sucks" part became quite venomous. A large number of the people in line had actually turned around to shout it in the direction of Lucy's stage.

Across the room, Clem saw her mom looking over, making like she was pissed off by what was going on.

"Clementine Rollins! Lucy sucks!" the chant continued another couple of times.

Suddenly, Lucy went storming down the steps at the exit side of her stage, her security team hurrying after her. The chanting quickly stopped as the fans began shouting and cheering at the unexpected turn of events. They had realised Lucy was coming over to confront Clem. No one had ever seen anything like it before.

Hiding her delight at the reaction, Clem stood on the stage, watching Lucy coming marching around to the exit of her line. She heard some guy shouting, "Oh shit! Oh shit!" losing his mind in excitement.

"What are you doing over here?" Clem shouted at Lucy as her mother approached the stage.

Talking wasn't on Lucy's agenda. With a face like thunder, she stamped up the steps onto the stage.

Both women started throwing right hands at each other, with the fans going crazy in the background. The more powerful Lucy soon got the upper hand, knocking Clem down on the stage.

Clementine was quick to get up, but the fact that she had gone down put her at a huge disadvantage. Capitalising on it, Lucy kicked her in the stomach as soon as she got back to her feet, before setting her up in position to deliver a powerbomb.

"We'll see who sucks!" Lucy shouted at the fans in Clem's line. With that, she hoisted Clem up into the air and powerbombed her through the table at the back of the stage.

Lying among the broken remains of the table and pretending to be unconscious, Clem listened to the fans booing Lucy. A "Holy shit!" chant soon started.

"Don't look like I'm the one who sucks to me!" Lucy shouted as she walked off the stage.

Hurriedly sent out by Hunter, some supposed medical personal came to attend to Clem. Certain that plenty of people were capturing the unfolding drama on video on their phones, she made a point of selling some kind of back injury as she was helped up and shepherded away from the stage.

The staged attack that Hunter had wanted for a final piece of build work for the huge Wrestlemania match had worked perfectly. The only downside Clem could see was that some fans would be left disappointed at not getting the chance to meet her. But that was out of her control. The next thing she had to do was compete in her first singles match at Wrestlemania, against her mother, for the Raw Women's Championship.


	7. Chapter 7

A loud cheer greeted the graphic showing Clementine Rollins, Lucy Rollins and the Raw Women's Championship.

"The moment is at hand, gentlemen," Renee said to her two commentary colleagues. "For only the second time in history, a women's match is the Wrestlemania main event."

"I've been looking forward to this," Graves said. "After more than a year of trying, can Clementine Rollins beat her mother and finally get her hands on WWE gold?"

To cue the video promo package, Miz said, "Here's how this one got started at the Royal Rumble."

The three minute promo package played, recapping the Clementine – Lucy rivalry, running from Clem's Royal Rumble win all the way to some footage of the altercation at Axxess the previous day.

After the promo ended, Lucy's music hit right away, drawing loud and heated booing from the full house in the New Orleans Superdome.

"There you hear the reaction for Lucy Rollins," Renee said. "Guys, one thing I never expected to see was Lucy turn on her own daughter over the Raw Women's Championship. I thought Lucy was better than that, but we've learned over the past couple of months that nothing matters to Lucy apart from that title."

"I'm not sure I agree with that," Graves said as Lucy sauntered out onto the stage in her usual manner, to more boos. "I think what we're seeing here is Lucy trying to find out if she can still go. She found herself faced with Clementine, her own daughter, who challenged her to a title match at Wrestlemania. I think Lucy Rollins looked across the ring that night, and for the first time in her illustrious career, she didn't believe she could win that match on talent alone. I don't think Lucy believed she was good enough to stand toe to toe on an equal footing with Clementine and win, so she stabbed her own daughter in the back to try and get a physical and mental advantage for tonight."

"That's the biggest bunch of garbage I've ever heard," Miz insisted. "Lucy Rollins was right to do what she did. Have you never heard of respecting your elders? I don't know how Clementine had the nerve to come out and challenge her mother to a match. She's deserved everything she's gotten since the Royal Rumble, and more. And tonight she's going to be taught some respect when her mom beats her and retains the Raw Women's Championship."

While the commentators were arguing, Lucy was making her way down the enormous entrance ramp. Although she had never been one to play up to the fans, or to really care about their reactions all that much, she was trying to take in every moment of this, her final entrance for a competitive match. After almost fifteen years of blood, sweat and even tears a time or two, it was all coming to an end.

But it wasn't over yet. There was one more match to have, and for Lucy it was the most important of her career by far. This was the match where she had to put over Clementine. Lucy's time in the ring was over. By comparison, her daughter's was only just beginning. It was time for the torch to be passed, and for the Rollins legacy to be entrusted to the next generation.

Getting into the ring, Lucy was booed again. The negative reaction didn't bother her at all, for two reasons. Firstly, it was the reaction she was supposed to be getting as a heel, and more importantly, it made it even more likely that the roof would come off the place for Clem.

Waiting behind the curtain, Clem closed her eyes for a moment, running through the spots that had been agreed for the match one last time. There was a lot of emotion and expectation weighing on her. Yes, wrestling her mom was going to be an incredible experience, but they couldn't forget that they had a gigantic audience to put on a show for, in the Wrestlemania main event, no less.

Out in the arena, a short pyro display went off, signalling to Clem that her mom was posing in the ring, her entrance complete. Sure enough, her music faded out moments later.

The production crew made the fans wait for Clementine's music. The noise in the arena was already amazing. She didn't need to walk through the curtain to know that pretty much everyone was on their feet. She could just tell.

A chant of "Clem!" became audible. Before it really took hold, her music hit.

"Wow," she breathed, awed by the thunderous reaction. With that, she walked through the curtain, into a breath-taking wall of noise.

She walked over to the top of the entrance ramp and gave her signature diamond pose while some pyro went off either side of her on the stage.

A deafening roar of approval and encouragement came her way as she started walking quickly towards the ring. Hunter's decision to keep championship glory away from her for more than a year was really paying off. Every hair on her body felt like it was standing on end, such was the electricity in the air. The fans were convinced that tonight, finally, Clementine was going to become Raw Women's Champion.

They were right, Clem knew. And she also knew that the considerable speculation about this being Lucy Rollins' final match was also correct. The one thing she wanted more than anything was for the fans to stop booing her mom once they realised she was indeed retiring, and give her the standing ovation that she most definitely deserved for her outstanding career, during which she had broken pretty much every record in WWE for women's wrestling.

Outwardly, Clem displayed none of what she was thinking as she walked up the ring steps on the commentary table side of the ring. She climbed up onto the middle turnbuckle and faced the crowd, giving her diamond pose again. With that done, she turned her head to make eye contact with Lucy for the first time.

On commentary, Renee had just finished telling the audience the story of the attack at Axxess, speculating if Clementine could possibly be at one hundred per-cent after being put through a table only the day before.

"Look into those eyes and tell me Clem's not one hundred per-cent," Graves said as the production team got a great zoomed shot of her face, in a stare down with Lucy.

It was Lucy who broke eye contact, stalking around the ring, looking ready for the upcoming fight.

Clementine got into the ring, and JoJo made her announcements. It was strange for everyone to hear the name Rollins as both challenger and champion.

With the formalities complete, both Lucy and Clem stepped forward simultaneously, meeting in the middle of the ring. Everyone in the background of the shot was standing, and the amount of camera flashes had to be seen to be believed. The wall of noise was still there.

"If ever there was something you could call a big match feel, this is it," Miz said as Lucy started mouthing off at Clem.

"I've seen some amazing matches in my time," Graves said. "But this is one I thought I would never see. Lucy and Clementine Rollins, seconds away from the biggest match of either of their careers."

As he finished speaking, Clem fired some words back at her mom, before the referee stepped in to make them back up. Both competitors obeyed his instruction, and he ordered the bell to be sounded. It was greeted with a louder cheer than some victories had been for people further down the card.

"Here we go," Graves said excitedly.

The two competitors walked around the ring, eyes locked on each other, neither seeming overly keen to make the first move.

"Lucy Rollins with the height and strength advantage here, as well as considerably more experience," Renee said. "On the other hand, Clementine has the edge in athleticism and resilience, and she has eighty thousand people cheering her on."

At last, Lucy and Clementine locked up in the middle of the ring. Clem was initially able to force Lucy back to the corner a little, but then Lucy gave a loud cry of effort and sent Clem flying off her feet across the ring, following it up with some more choice words as Clem looked up at her from the mat, with the fans booing again.

Nodding slowly, Clem got back up. They locked up again. This time, Lucy shoved Clem away and into the ropes, but when Clem came back at her she launched herself into the air and delivered a clothesline, ending the move with a forward roll on the canvas.

The fans roared their approval of the move, which had taken Lucy clean off her feet. The noise got even louder when Clem taunted her mother with the diamond pose.

That was the end of the posturing, though. The match soon settled into the fairly slow pace of most of Lucy's matches. She dominated most of the proceedings, using her hard-hitting striking attacks and power moves.

Their styles complimented each other well as Clem was most often booked to take a beating throughout her matches, simply refusing to lose, before managing to somehow mount a comeback.

Ten minutes in, when Lucy's signature spinning heel kick only got her a two count, she began to let her frustration show. "Stay down!" she yelled at Clem, before remonstrating with the referee to count faster.

He was preoccupied with arguing with Lucy, which explained why he didn't see a spear coming from Clem. Lucy did see it, and managed to dodge, causing Clem to hit the referee instead, taking him out.

Looking regretful at what she had accidentally done, Clem mistakenly allowed herself not to focus on Lucy for a moment. The lapse in concentration ended up with her on the receiving end of a savage discus clothesline.

As they had throughout the match, the fans booed Lucy's offence. This time, they sounded particularly worried by the nasty impact and the bad landing Clem had taken as a result of it. For the first time, there seemed to be real concern that Clem might not actually win.

"Lucy could have had the match won there," Miz said. "But there was no point making a cover; Clem has taken out the referee."

"Inadvertently," Renee clarified.

"What's Lucy doing now?" Graves asked as she climbed out of the ring.

Crouching down, Lucy pulled something out from under the ring apron. When she stood up again, more boos rained down. She had a kendo stick in her hand.

"Wait a minute, this isn't a no DQ match," Renee said.

"It's not going to matter when there's no referee," Graves pointed out.

Lucy methodically got back in the ring and walked over to Clementine, raising the kendo stick in the air to deliver the first blow. However, before she could, Clem lifted herself from the canvas and managed to hit an incredibly athletic Pele kick to her mother's face, drawing a loud cheer.

Staggering backwards into the corner, Lucy dropped the kendo stick. Clem was on her feet in a flash and picked it up.

As Lucy staggered out of the corner, holding her face, Clem blasted her in the stomach with the kendo stick.

Lucy went down to all fours, and Clem slammed the stick into her back several times, with the fans roaring her on. But there was still no referee.

"Clementine going over to the referee," Renee called after the challenger tossed the kendo stick aside.

"Come on, man! Get up!" Clem shouted at the referee, trying to stir him with her foot. It was no use. He lay there face down, motionless.

Giving up, Clem turned back around to focus on Lucy. Little did she know, the champion was back up already, having been protected from the worst of the damage from the kendo stick by her body armour. Lucy got Clem up on her shoulders and connected with a Samoan drop.

Already booing the offensive move, the animosity from the fans increased when Lucy picked up the kendo stick.

Clem had rolled over onto her stomach, so the first nasty shot with the stick came down on her back with a loud crack.

"Lucy wearing out Clementine with that kendo stick!" Miz called. "Listen to those shots!"

The fifth time Lucy hit Clem with the stick, it broke. Throwing the remains of it out of the ring, Lucy glanced at the referee, who was starting to come around at last.

Clem used the ropes to pull herself to her feet in the corner. She came stumbling towards the middle of the ring, holding her back in pain.

Ready and waiting, Lucy scooped her opponent up and across her right shoulder, and quickly hit her sit out piledriver finishing move.

"Thorne in the Side! She got it!" Renee yelled over a collective intake of breath from the fans. This was not in the script as far as they were concerned.

"Lucy hooks the leg!" Graves called as the referee crawled into position to make the count.

One.

Two.

The roof almost came off the Superdome as Clem powered out before the three.

"Look at Lucy's face! She can't believe it!" Renee shouted.

"No one kicks out of the Thorne in the Side!" Miz protested.

Clementine had. And she was getting back to her feet, too, with the fans going insane in support of her.

Looking at her daughter in disbelief, Lucy didn't seem to know what to do next. She attempted to go back to what had brought her to the dance, swinging a powerful right hand. Clem blocked it, however, and started going to town with right hands of her own, followed by a left, then a final powerful right, staggering Lucy against the ropes.

Even the powerful punch wasn't enough to knock Lucy down. After the ropes took her weight, she came rushing back at Clem, attempting to hit a clothesline. But Clem ducked it, and as Lucy quickly spun around, she was able to hit her version of the Diamond Cutter, called the Diamond in the Rough.

"There it is!" Renee cried as the crowd exploded.

Everyone in the arena seemed to join in with the count.

"One!"

"Two!"

There was a loud groan of disappointment when Lucy got her shoulder up.

"Lucy kicked out!" Miz exclaimed in obvious relief.

"And now Clementine can't believe it," Renee said.

Stunned, Clem had ended up lying face down with her hands on her head in shock. Her reaction was wasting precious moments that she should have been making the most of. By the time she made it back to her feet, Lucy was also doing the same.

Clem ran at her mother and attempted a dropkick, but Lucy swatted her aside, to another groan of disappointment.

Breathing heavily, Lucy stretched her arms out in what had always been her signature T pose.

"Lucy signalling that it's over," Graves said over loud booing.

When Clem got up, Lucy scooped her up over her shoulder, in position for the Thorne in the Side for a second time.

This time, however, Clem wriggled free and slid down her mom's back, landing on her feet. Lucy spun around, right into the Diamond in the Rough.

The crowd erupted again, but this time Clem didn't attempt a cover. Instead, she went over to stand in a corner of the ring, taking a moment to get her breath back.

"What's Clementine doing?" Miz demanded. "She had the win right there!"

The answer to his question became apparent. Out of it after taking two finishers, all Lucy could do was make it to all fours. As soon as she did, Clem ran in and borrowed a move from her father.

"Curb Stomp!" Renee shouted.

Going wild, the crowd knew it was over. They revelled in counting along with the referee.

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

It was a moment of conflicting emotions for Clem as she rolled onto her back, raising a hand in celebration. Finally, finally, after so many years of dreaming, so many years of focusing everything she had on reaching the top in WWE, she was a champion. It was wonderful beyond comprehension.

But, on the other hand, she had just retired her mom - the woman who meant more to her than any professional success ever could. Since she was ten, Clementine had been raised by Lucy and Seth as if she was their own. She knew they would do anything for her, as she would for them. Lucy had made sure her final job in the ring was to put her over for the title, and Clem would never forget it.

Lying on her back, looking up at the lights, Lucy listened to the wild celebrations. Yes, her own career was over, but what mattered more was that Clem had just stepped up to the next level. She was going to be one of the best ever Raw Women's Champions.

Selling injuries from the match, Lucy crawled over to a corner of the ring and propped her back up against the bottom turnbuckle. What she was really doing was watching the referee hand the title belt to Clem, who took it and held it in both hands, resting her head on its faceplate for a moment. It was that sight that started tears pooling in Lucy's eyes.

Since the three count had gone down, the commentators had been hyping up Clem's amazing victory.

"Listen to that reaction!" Renee exclaimed as Clem triumphantly raised the belt in her right hand, to a roar of approval.

"Clementine Rollins is your new Raw Women's Champion!" Graves repeated.

Looking emotionally and physically exhausted, Clem turned around. She stopped in her tracks. Lucy was back up on her feet and walking out of the corner.

Clem's music faded out as mother and daughter stood face to face once more, only feet apart. The noise from the crowd was still very loud as they pondered the same questions that Miz asked.

"Is it over yet? Or are they going to fight again?"

Lucy didn't look like she wanted a fight, though. She looked humbled by the defeat, standing with her head slightly bowed. She nodded slowly, an acknowledgement that she had lost to the better woman on the night.

Reaching out with her free hand, Clem gently lifted her mom's chin, the message clear: she had nothing to be ashamed of. It seemed like a remarkable gesture after what had happened between them over the past couple of months.

In that moment, all semblance of animosity was blown away. Lucy stepped forward and embraced Clem, the gesture being returned without hesitation.

In the background, all of the fans in the shot were standing and applauding.

"This is a very emotional moment," Renee said with some difficulty as Clem's music began to play again.

"What's Lucy doing now?" Miz asked.

The now former champion had taken the belt from Clem. The reason soon became apparent. After instructing her daughter to turn around, she put the belt around her waist and fastened it.

Doing her best not to tear up, Clem headed to the corner of the ring and climbed up on the middle turnbuckle for her usual victory celebration.

As Clem gave the diamond pose, the title belt around her waist, a celebratory pyro display started to go off on the stage.

Renee had just received instruction over her headset to deliver the final line of commentary of the night. "Clementine Rollins, at long last, on top of the world, at Wrestlemania!"

Clem stood there posing until the pyro ended, then climbed down from the turnbuckle. With a final nod of gratitude and respect to her mother, she left the ring, walking briskly round the ring and heading up the entrance ramp. When she reached the stage, her music faded out. In any event, all eyes were now back on the ring.

If there had been any doubt about whether Lucy was retiring or not before the match, there wasn't now. There was no other explanation for why she would be the last of the two women to leave the ring.

When Clem's music faded out, Lucy walked slowly into the middle of the ring. Feeling very heavy-hearted, she was nevertheless determined not to cry. That wasn't her style. The fans breaking into another round of applause didn't make it any easier to do what she had to do next.

There were some anguished cries from the crowd when Lucy started taking her gloves off, and even more when she placed them down on the canvas. Next, the body armour also came off and was set down beside the gloves.

Breathing heavily to try and control her emotions, she heard a "Thank you, Lucy!" chant starting to take hold. Facing the hard camera side of the ring, Lucy bowed her appreciation of the support she had received over the years. It was about as theatrical a farewell as she had ever been likely to provide.

With that done, she turned and left the ring, her music starting to play for the final time. She had always been a strong and proud woman, and that was still true even now. She just wanted to get to the back without crying. She almost made it, but there was a surprise in store for her.

When Lucy reached the stage, her music faded out, being immediately replaced by Seth's, and he quickly walked out into the arena. He was greeted by a loud cheer from the fans as Lucy's hands flew to her face and the tears immediately came. She hadn't expected her man to come out. She also hadn't expected Clem to come back out close behind him.

Husband and wife walked into each others arms and Seth said, "I love you so much, babe. You were incredible. I love you."

"I love you too," Lucy croaked, too overwhelmed to say anything else. Only as they parted did she realise that he had tears in his eyes also, such was his pride at what his two girls had achieved.

Clem joined them for a group hug. By then, all three of them had tears rolling down their cheeks.

After the three-way hug, Seth and Clem each took one of Lucy's hands and raised it. The family shot was the perfect way to say goodbye, which was why Hunter chose that moment to instruct a fade to black.


End file.
